London barrister who evaded rail fares for two years is spared prison

PETER BARNETT, a City lawyer in London, who it is alleged avoided paying almost £20,000 (€27,069) in train tickets, has been spared going to jail on Wednesday September 30.

Barnett was stopped by a ticket inspector at Marylebone station where he claimed to have travelled from Wembley instead of Haddenham &Thame Parkway station. He had previously made hundreds of journeys without paying the correct amount.

The court was told the former Oxford graduate and Rhodes scholar, who had previously worked in the financial services sector, didn’t pay for journeys on Chiltern Railways on 655 days between April 2012 and November 2014.

Prosecutors numbered the amount of journeys at 1,310 with the ticket fraud totalling £19,689.The defence however argued that the real number he should pay back was £5,892.70, basing their figure on weekly tickets as opposed to daily fares.

“No commuter, if they were going from Haddenham & Thame to London, would buy a full single, then have his day in London, and buy another full single back,” said Angus Bunyan who was representing Barnett.

Judge Omotosho ruled in the barrister’s favour ordering him to pay the lower amount of £5,892.70 and sentenced him to a 16-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months.